Ben & Erin Napier Have Holiday Hosting Hacks for Hoda & Jenna on ‘Today’

TODAY with Hoda & Jenna / YouTube Erin and Ben Napier on "Today"

The holiday season has arrived, and HGTV’s Ben and Erin Napier are here to help turn hosting for the holidays from stressful and scary to relaxing and rewarding. The “Home Town” hosts are everywhere lately, from their HGTV showsm, to their discovery+ Christmas movie, to presenting at the CMA Awards.

Now, the two are celebrating being on the cover of People magazine, and have stopped by “The Today Show” to talk about all of these things, and share some holiday hosting tips with hosts Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager.

See their full “Today Show” appearance below, and read what furniture hacks the hosts have to share.

Ben & Erin Napier Recommend Using a Church Pew For Extra Seating

Ben and Erin Napier joined Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager on “The Today Show” to share tips and hacks for hosting large family parties around the holidays. Their first tip had to do with seating, after Kotb and Hager talked about having to squeeze chairs in “everywhere” in their New York City apartments around Thanksgiving, including outdoor folding chairs.

“Our family get-togethers, my side of the family especially, is huge,” Ben tells the “Today” hosts. Erin adds that there are a lot of little kids running around when they all get together. “So this is something we like to do, it’s an easy cheat. This is a banquette,” Ben continues on, showing Kotb and Hager a banquette (bench) built into the wall along a dining table in their home, with another bench on set for the “Today” hosts to try out.

Ben and Erin note that a banquette is good for squeezing lots of people in, especially kids. They are also good for hidden storage, the couple says, as they can be built to open from the top.

The Napiers note that one does not have to be a design expert to build a banquette, as businesses do sell pre-fabricated banquettes that can be easily installed in the home. Ben adds, “or you can go to a thrift store and get an old church pew or something,” and that it doesn’t need to be installed into the wall.

The Napiers also show Kotb and Hager how to easily re-upholster a chair, telling the two that they can either staple the new upholstery down permanently, or just add a holiday-themed fabric for the season and remove it once all their holiday hosting duties are finished.

Erin Napier Was Worried She & Ben’s Characters in ‘A Christmas Open House’ Would Have ‘Terrible Names’

Ben and Erin Napier also opened up to the “Today Show” hosts about their new discovery+ Christmas movie, “A Christmas Open House”, which is out now on the streaming service. The couple plays Henry (an avid fisherman and woodworker) and Sarah Wright (an artist and designer).

The two loved the experience, which they almost said “No” to, according to People, and say that it wasn’t difficult for them to get in character.

“We’re really playing ourselves with different names,” Erin admits. The HGTV host also joked that she was worried, “What if they gave us really terrible names? But these were good, these were great names.”

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